06/02/2011

Big Payday For Trial Lawyers

It's better to be a plaintiff's lawyer than an injured consumer in a class action lawsuit.

A Missouri appeals court has affirmed a settlement in a class action against investment firm A.G. Edwards which pays $21 million in fees to lawyers at Milberg and other plaintiffs' firms while providing only $5 million to some customers and distributing mere coupons to most others as reported by Daniel Fisher for Forbes. Although the aggregate face value of the coupons for discounted future purchases was $34 million "what little research is available on coupon settlements suggests that few plaintiffs actually cash them in." Accordingly, looking just at the cash involved in the settlement, for every $1 received by an injured consumer the plaintiffs' lawyers got $4.20. Isn't this ass backwards? Welcome to the bizarro world of the lawsuit industry.